Crashed choppers were evading missiles: US

At least 17 US soldiers were killed and five seriously injured on Saturday when two US Black Hawk helicopters collided over northern Iraq as one was reportedly trying to evade an attacking missile, according to US military and Iraqi police sources.

"There are 17 now dead, five injured and one soldier is unaccounted for," a US Central Command official said.

The crash west of the city of Mosul came as the US-appointed Iraqi interim Governing Council announced elections would be held in Baghdad by the end of 2005.

An Iraqi police officer said he saw a Black Hawk helicopter intervening as assailants ambushed a US foot patrol in the area.

A missile was then fired at the chopper, which crashed into a second Black Hawk as it tried to dodge the missile, he said.

The Central Command official declined to comment on that report, saying, "The incident is still under investigation, and the results will be released as soon as they are available. We will not speculate on the cause of this crash".

The governing council in Baghdad earlier announced a timetable for a handover of power by the American-led coalition.

"There will be elections for a government which will draft a constitution before the end of 2005," said Jalal Talabani, who currently chairs the council.

A transitional assembly to be elected by the end of May 2004 will elect a provisional government before the end of the following month, he said.

The council's announcement followed the recent return to Baghdad of US overseer Paul Bremer, who was summoned to Washington for crisis talks.

US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair quickly welcomed the announcement.

"I welcome the announcement by the Iraqi Governing Council of a political timetable as called for by the United Nations in UN Resolution 1511," Bush said in a statement, echoed by Blair.

But speaking in Washington earlier, Bush vowed that US-led troops would not leave until that war-ravaged nation is "free and peaceful".

"We will stay until the job is done," he said. "And the job is for Iraq to be free and peaceful ... And we'll find Saddam Hussein."

In Japan, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Governing Council's agreement did not mean American forces would begin pulling out of Iraq next June.

"No, no," he told reporters travelling with him on a visit to Okinawa when asked.

"There are no changes in the security situation. We are on the map we were on last week, last month. This has nothing to do with US troops in Iraq," Rumsfeld said.

"The timetable, or the way ahead that the Governing Council has been describing, relates to the governance aspects of the country and not to the security aspects. That's on a separate track.

"We're working to bring in additional coalition forces, we're making plans for the rotation of our forces out and new US and coalition forces in," he went on.

"And the announcements with respect to Iraqi governance don't have a relationship to that. And any stories that you're seeing like that ought to have someone raise questions about the source," Rumsfeld said.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a US soldier was killed in the capital's al-Azamiyah district when a roadside bomb exploded as an army convoy drove by, also wounding two soldiers, the military said.

That death, along with those in the helicopter collision, raised to 178 the number of US troops killed in combat in Iraq since May 1, when Bush declared major hostilities over.

In Basra, a spokesman said coalition headquarters in the southern port city were still closed in the wake of the bloodiest postwar anti-coalition attack which killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis in Nasiriyah on Wednesday.

"We are still not open. No Iraqi staff can come in" the huge compound overlooking Shatt El-Arab, once used as Saddam's official palace, Dominic d'Angelo said. He said the situation would be reviewed soon.

In Nasiriyah, dozens of Iraqis, mostly university students, demonstrated on Saturday at the bombed out Italian base to express their solidarity with foreign troops.

"No to terrorism, yes to freedom and peace," said one banner carried by the marchers. "This criminal act will unite us", read another.

In a piece of welcome news, a Portuguese radio journalist was freed on Saturday, a day after he was kidnapped after crossing into southern Iraq from Kuwait, said the private radio station he worked for.

Another journalist wounded in the incident was being treated at the British military hospital.